DEVELOPMENT OF THE SURVEY

Abstract

The development of the survey is structured according to the outline of the thesis. First, Section 5.1 deals with the economics of patents and reconsiders asset characteristics of patents that are important for financial utilization, including a detailed reexamination of the 'value question ' and the 'liquidity question ' (corresponding to Section 2). Subsequently, Section 5.2 concentrates on patents as financial assets and develops a scheme to examine a company 's endogenous financial exploitability of patents concerning the specific role of patents in different external financing instruments (corresponding to Section 3). In Section 5.3, questions are posed about the actual extent and the future potential of a financial utilization of patents. Finally, questions about the influence factors (i.e. motives and barriers) for companies to leverage patents financially, drawn from literature findings and exploratory interviews, are collected in Section 5.4.